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Rabat, a green city above the ratio of the WHO

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If the ratio of the green spaces per capita recommended by the WHO is of 10m2 / inhabitant, this average is more than 20 m2 per inhabitant in Rabat, declares not without pride the General Secretary of the City Council, Abdelfttah Skir.

Within the framework of the valuation of the landscaped potential of the city , the services of the wilaya and the City Council of Rabat put a lot into the embellishment and the humanization of the urban environment by reorganizing and by multiplying the green spaces.

Number of gardens, parks and green spaces were so created and fitted out, where the walker, on hs own or in family, can rest on a bench and become soaked with greenery, be rocked by the singing of fountains, or watch their children playing safely in playgrounds. Gardens El Majd (traffic circle El Kamra), El Kifah (avenue El Kifah), Nouzhat Hassan (Bab El Bouiba-7ha), Ibno Rochd (ex--Madinat Al Irfane), Hassan (near the Mausoleum V) Ibn Toumert (following ramparts going from Bab Rouah to Bab El Had) and the Garden of botanical tries (Agdal) are some of the beautiful examples.

But the effort does not stop there. Another big garden, extending over 15 ha between the hospital Avicennes and the Mosque Lalla Soukaina, will soon be opened to the public, announced the architect-landscape painter El Bennaoui, the leader of the green spaces of the wilaya of Rabat. This new garden will have cycle circuits, courses for jogging, ground for the amateurs of the game of bowls, tracks for hikes etc.

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The green belt, a crazy guard against the threat of the concrete

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However, the temptation of an unbridled urbanization threatens the capital of the kingdom which risks to lose this wealth. According to Yassine El Jilani, researcher in Economy of territories at the University Mohamed V Agdal, the green belt, which spreads out over 1063 ha and is a part of the green outer-urban spaces of the city, ¬ę is not shielded from a possible urbanization ¬Ľ.?

For Mr. El Jilani, who is the author of one study on the protection and the development of the green belt of Rabat- Temara, the urban pressure on this territory becomes stronger and stronger because of the region population growth and the extension of the urban perimeter which ensues from it.

The change of zones affectation is the only possibility offered in Rabat if we want to fill the needs of the next years in terms of housing and public equipments, he recommends.

To maintain the balance between the progress of the concrete and the green spaces arrangement and protection is a necessity if we want to protect the lungs of the city to protect the biological variety, to fight against the global warming, to reduce the pollution and therefore to supply to the population a healthy environment where life is enjoyable.

Real green lungs of the urban populations, the green spaces also constitute a support of the biological variety and participate in the fight against the global warming, in the reduction of the atmospheric pollution and in the environmental protection.